


señorita

by captain_kriegy



Category: Grey's Anatomy, Station 19 (TV)
Genre: Bisexuality, F/F, Friendship, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:54:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25966201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captain_kriegy/pseuds/captain_kriegy
Summary: Maya’s a professional long distance runner, Andy runs a beachfront salsa studio, and Carina’s a professional ballet dancer. They all end up living in the same apartment complex in Miami, and meet on the rooftop.A story mostly about friendship, with a little bit of romance.
Relationships: Andy Herrera/Robert Sullivan, Maya Bishop/Carina DeLuca, Maya Bishop/Carina DeLuca/Andy Herrera
Comments: 9
Kudos: 64





	señorita

It all starts with an overly priced high rise apartment building by the water. 

Andy has lived in Miami her whole life, aside from the few years she travelled abroad to teach and compete in salsa competitions. It took her many years, however, to move out of her dad’s house. At first, it just made sense for her to crash with him, because she was starting to get her salsa studio up and running and was strapped for money. But over the course of time, Andy’s studio became successful and her lack of privacy in her dad’s place became a serious inconvenience in her life. So she finally moved out. 

Carina grew up in Italy, before moving to the United States as a teenager to train at the School of American Ballet. After finishing up at SAB, she spent a few years with the New York City Ballet before moving down to work for the Miami City Ballet—in part for the promotion, and in part to escape New York City life for the more laid back, fun environment she found in Miami. For the first year she lived in Miami, she lived a bit further away from the studio, just seeking some place to live where she could save money. After living in New York for years and trying to financially help out her younger brother, she found herself with basically no money to her name. But after the first year, she couldn’t stand her run-down studio apartment, and moved.

Maya is the most recent transplant. She grew up in Seattle and then attended the University of Oregon for college. After college, she moved to Portland where she trained as a professional runner. She went on to win the gold medal in the 10,000 meters at the 2012 London Olympics, and then made the adjustment to long distance running, specifically the marathon. After the program she trained with in Portland was shut down, Maya found herself moving all the way across the country to train in Miami with a new coach and new teammates. 

They all end up in the same apartment building, and meet on the rooftop on a random Sunday. Carina has a bottle of wine with her and offers Maya and Andy a glass. The three of them get chatting about life and their jobs. They exchange phone numbers, but Maya assumes she’ll probably never text either of them.

Until about a week later, when Andy texts both her and Carina in a joint text to ask if either of them have a spare egg she could use, in exchange for some of the brownies she’s trying to bake. Since about half of Maya’s fridge is filled with eggs, she readily agrees to give Andy one, insisting she’s not allowed to eat brownies. Carina pipes in and asks for a brownie. Thus, the group chat was born.

At first, it’s just silly things like flour, eggs, issues with water pressure, and complaints about their property manager. Then it evolves to weekly wine on the rooftop on Sunday evenings, even though Maya isn’t supposed to drink wine, so she usually brings gross electrolyte drinks Carina and Andy make fun of her for, and Andy brings beer. They’re incapable of agreeing on one beverage, but they enjoy watching the sunset from lounge chairs and chatting with people who they’re not related to and who they don’t work with. 

It only takes Andy a month or so of acquaintanceship-turned-friendship for her to convince Maya and Carina to come to one of her group salsa classes. Carina is amazing at it, which surprises nobody, considering she’s a dancer. Maya is awkward but she has fun, brushing up against strangers and moving her body in a totally new way. Come December, Andy and Maya get tickets to see Carina in the Miami City Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker, on a night where Carina is playing the Sugar Plum Fairy. They bring flowers for Carina and surprise her, and Carina is deeply touched. Come January, Andy and Carina show up on the sidelines of the finish line of the Miami Marathon, where Maya wins the women’s division. When Maya’s coach asks who the girls are who run up to her and hug her while she’s stretching, Maya can’t hide the smile on her face.

“Oh, those are my friends. Andy and Carina,” Maya explains. Friends. She hasn’t had many friends in her life. She’s had a lot of teammates and hookups and acquaintances, but she hasn’t had many friends. 

In May, it’s time for them to re-sign their leases. Maya emerges from practice to see her usually-quiet group text with Carina and Andy is blowing up.

Andy: Hi, I know this is uncomfy and totally understand if neither of you want to talk about this, but my new lease term has a 12% increase in rent which is absolutely absurd. Just wondering if this is also happening to you? Kind of panicking because I can’t afford this apartment with that rent.

Carina: Same issue here. I called Eileen at the front office this morning who gave me a very condescending speech about how this is standard and rent is increasing across the city. 

Maya scrolls through the messages, which are mostly just Andy and Carina exchanging choice curses about Eileen and the rent situation, most of Carina’s in Italian. Maya looks to her email and sees that the same issue seems to be happening with her new lease terms. 

Maya: Sorry, just catching up on this. Same here, and there’s no way I can stay at that price. Have either of you started looking elsewhere?

Andy: I’ve been looking elsewhere but not finding much yet. I really love this location. At this rate, I’m going to end up moving back in with my dad.

It takes about four days of panicking for Carina to make a joke about how her and Maya will be hiding out in Andy’s dad’s basement at this rate, to which Maya responds with the idea of maybe becoming roommates.

Andy: Like, staying in the building and just getting a 3 bed?

Maya: Yeah, I mean, it would make the rent significantly less than we’re all paying individually now, and we’d each have our own bathrooms. Could be a potential solution. Heads up, I’m a neat freak and have a strict “no nudity on the upholstery” rule. 

Surprisingly, Andy and Carina both end up agreeing, and they apply for a three bedroom apartment together. Maya’s the only one with an attachment to her couch, so Maya’s light grey fabric couch becomes their couch. Andy brings a few comfortable chairs to add to the common space, and Carina contributes her kitchen appliances, as she’s the only one who really cooks. 

Maya certainly wasn’t lying about her roommate quirks. She has a fair number of ground rules and preferences about decor. Andy, by contrast, couldn’t care what anything looks like as long as it’s comfortable. She also lacks boundaries, particularly surrounding the showers. Carina butts heads with Maya over the layout of the kitchen, the only room she really cares about. But otherwise, Carina is happy to let Maya micromanage pillow placement in the living room and insist that a bookshelf stay empty. 

Carina and Maya quickly learn that Andy’s been hooking up with two different men on and off—one named Jack and one named Ryan. One morning, Carina gets into it with Jack, who was trying to make a smoothie and egregiously misusing Carina’s blender, which Carina didn’t even realize was possible. Carina hooks up with both men and women on occasion, but makes a point of going to the hookup’s place, instead of bringing strangers back to the apartment. Maya brings people over occasionally, but they never sleep over, and since Maya is so busy with running, she doesn’t often find time for “self care.” 

All of their schedules are grueling. Carina dances from 8am to 11am, has an hour in the middle of the day to take care of her body and re-fuel, and then dances from 12pm to 4pm. Most days, she then has to prepare for an evening performance that begins at 7pm—she gets to the performance center two hours early. On these nights, she slips into the apartment around 11pm, and is back out around 7am. Maya has two running sessions per day during the week, interspersed with lifting, cross-training, and yoga. And once her physical day is over, usually around 6pm, she is dead exhausted and spends her evenings stretching and watching race footage. Andy’s days start a bit later, but she’s always busy outside of classes at the studio with running the business. And on weekend nights, she’s open until about 2am, doing beachfront salsa nights that are beloved in town. She also somehow finds time to fit in her own practice with her partner, so they can still compete on the odd occasion. 

They accordingly all cherish the moments where they find themselves all in the living room at the same time. One weekend morning, Maya is on the floor stretching a sore hip with her AirPods in, watching race footage. Andy’s curled up in one of her favorite chairs, on her laptop sending business emails. And Carina is sprawled across the couch, her legs elevated on the arm of it, bags of ice wrapped around her poor feet as she watches YouTube videos on her phone. Andy gets up after a while and, without thinking, starts making a fruit bowl and grabs three forks. 

“You’re my hero,” Maya notes, grabbing a fork and piercing a blueberry. Carina also adjusts so she’s sitting up and can grab a piece of watermelon. 

“You know, I really like living with you guys,” Andy says, with a small smile. Maya smiles back, a big, genuine smile they rarely see from their intense, focused roommate.

“Me too. It’s nice having...friends,” Maya says, a bit embarrassed. Carina leaned down to ruffle Maya’s hair. 

“You’re cute,” Carina replies, and Maya glares at her, while Andy laughs. 

Another morning, Maya is in the kitchen making her breakfast smoothie after going for a jog when a woman does a walk of shame out of Andy’s room and the apartment. Maya smirks and walks directly into Andy’s room without knocking, finding her friend curled up in bed naked, the sheets covering her chest. 

“MAYA, what are you doing?!” Andy exclaims, jumping to sit up on the bed, still clutching the sheets to her body. 

“Was that a girl I just saw leaving your bedroom?” Maya asks, excited. Andy laughs and flops back down on the bed.

One week later, Andy comes home to see a bisexual pride flag hanging in their living room. 

“Maya bought it, said it’s to celebrate three bi women living in the same apartment. Apparently, I missed your coming out,” Carina muses, looking up from her book. Andy shakes her head and can’t help but laugh. 

“Okay, I might be a little bit bi,” Andy admits, and Carina jumps up to hug her. 

“This is so exciting!” 

Later that week, they end up in an engaging, deep conversation about sexuality. Carina is a few wine glasses in, Andy is a few beers in, and Maya is indulging in flavored sparkling water. 

“When I was young, I was boy crazy,” Andy starts. “I was always so into boys that I didn’t think twice about women, I didn’t ask myself if I liked them, too. I don’t know. The attraction is different for me. I think I’m just much more picky with women? I’ve always dated men, so I never really took my attraction to some women seriously. I guess it took me a long time to realize it was even attraction, and not just admiration,” Andy rambles. “Like, I don’t know if it’s fair to consider myself bisexual? I’m not sure I’d put my attraction to women on an...equal playing field.” 

“It’s not about equal fields,” Carina pipes in. “Anything between only being attracted to men and only being attracted to women is bisexuality, or pansexuality. However you’d like to define that is up to you. But I consider myself bisexual even though my attraction to men is purely sexual and my attraction to women is both romantic and sexual. I dated men when I was young, but it never really felt right. I still like men and hook up with men, but I now know that I feel more...romantically attracted to women. And I’m sure bisexuality looks different for Maya than it does for me.” 

“Hm, so, for me, it’s more equal,” Maya admits. “I guess I never really thought about it being different types of attraction. I’ve been with men and women, and people who are non-binary. Gender plays a role, I guess, insofar as I think the dynamic that I have with people who identify as different genders sometimes differs. But, I think who the person is plays a much larger role than their gender in whether I’m attracted to them and what the relationship looks like. As you both know, I don’t seriously date, basically ever. But that’s my choice, it’s not because I haven’t had romantic feelings towards anyone,” Maya rambles. “I don’t know. Does that make sense?” 

“I think you’re both very valid, and we can all be bisexual despite us all having such different understandings of our sexualities, and that’s the beautiful thing about bisexuality,” Carina explains. Andy scoots closer to Carina and hugs her from the side. Maya puts her drink down and hugs Carina, too. 

One day, Carina gets home from a late night performance and sees Maya face down on the couch, her bare back on display and Andy sitting on her hips, massaging her upper back. 

“Hey Carina!” Maya calls.

“What happened to no nudity on the upholstery?” Carina asks, her voice teasing as she grabs a glass of water and approaches them. 

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m laying on a towel. My back is wrecked after I tweaked something lifting today so Andy offered to give me a massage,” Maya explains. Carina plops down on the chair next to the couch, sipping her water. From the side, she can see Maya’s bare breast pressed against the purple towel she’s laying on, and Carina almost chokes on her water. 

“You okay?” Andy asks. Carina nods and they both look at her apprehensively. A few minutes later, Andy stands up with a pat to Maya’s shoulder. Maya sits up, holding the towel to her chest and Andy hands her the oversized sweatshirt laying on the floor. Maya pulls it over her head and Carina tries to look away. Maya is completely oblivious to Carina’s reaction, but Andy watches the interaction closely. 

“I’m gonna go shower,” Carina says, a bit suddenly. Maya gives her a quizzical look. 

“Okay,” Maya replies. When she disappears into her room, Maya turns to Andy. 

“What do you think is up with her?” Maya asks. She brings Carina’s water glass into the kitchen, dumping the leftover water into the sink and placing the glass in the dishwasher. 

Andy shrugs, and files it in the back of her mind. 

From that day on, Carina starts to notice Maya. First, Maya walks around in minimal clothing, often. Maya comes back from her morning practice session and tosses her top onto a stool, starting to make a smoothie. When Carina walks out of her room, she sees Maya wearing just a sports bra and shorts, a sheen of sweat visible on her back. Carina can’t help but check her out, her eyes glued to her muscular thighs, defined abs, and large chest. Carina bites down on her lip and Maya turns around, thinking she heard someone in the hall, and catches Carina in her stare. She doesn’t say anything, but she files it away. 

“Hey Car,” Maya says. “Want a smoothie?” 

“Oh, no, I’m good. Have a nice day,” Carina replies, walking right by her and out of the apartment. 

A few days later, Maya walks into Andy’s bathroom while she’s showering. 

“What happened to shower boundaries?” Andy scoffs, reaching for her conditioner and squirting some onto her hand. Maya jumps up to sit on her countertop, her gaze straight at the door. 

“What do you think is going on with Carina? Do you think she’s sexually frustrated or something?” Maya asks. 

“Why do you think that?” Andy asks, washing the conditioner out of her hair. 

“I caught her checking me out the other day.” 

Andy just laughs it off and insists Maya get out of her bathroom. She doesn’t know why. She knows Maya isn’t lying—she’d also seen the way Carina had been looking at her. She justifies not indulging Maya with the reasoning that her two roommates getting involved would create drama and ruin their roommate dynamic. But the reality is, she’s also...jealous. 

So Andy starts walking around the apartment in states of undress, like Maya does. She makes dinner for the three of them while wearing a sports bra and athletic shorts, just to see what Carina’s reaction will be. When Carina gets home after work, she visibly raises her eyebrows at Andy’s appearance. Andy smirks. 

Game on. 

It’s not that she wants Carina…or that she doesn’t want Carina to want Maya. Or that she wants Maya. It’s none of those things. She just...wants to be wanted. And doesn’t want her two roommates to have this weird-bi-flirtation thing going on without her. 

In April, Andy and Carina take a weekend off of work to travel to New York to see Maya in the New York City Marathon. Well, they mostly use Maya running the New York City marathon as an excuse to go to New York—Carina’s wanted to visit her friends back in New York and it’s a slow time in between seasons for Miami City Ballet, and Andy’s excited to do the tourist-y things and check out the salsa scene. Maya runs a 2:26—her individual personal best in the marathon—and comes in fifth in the women’s division, placing the highest among women from the United States. After the elite division finishes, Carina and Maya wait on the sidelines as someone interviews Maya. She discusses the race briefly, before the subject changes. 

“How has it been training in Miami since your last facility was shut down? Did you experience a toxic environment in Portland?” The interviewer asks Maya. She sighs, and plasters a smile on her face that Carina and Andy can tell is fake from afar. They give each other a “this sounds like an inappropriate question for a post-race interview” look, but neither have any idea what she’s talking about. They realize in that moment that neither of them knew why Maya’s former training program was closed down. Neither of them had ever asked. 

“I love training in Miami and training with a female coach and other women athletes. It’s a much better training environment for me. But I’m grateful for my time in Portland and the continued opportunities Nike has given me,” Maya replies “That’s all I’m going to say about Portland.” 

Carina and Andy question Maya about it afterwards, but she shrugs them off. It’s clear she doesn’t want to talk about it. Both Carina and Andy switch from concern to sort of wanting to kill Maya when she complains for the duration of the flight back to Miami about how she just wasn’t quite fit enough and didn’t make her goal of landing on the podium. 

“I don’t know how you could be mad about a PB,” Andy grumbles. Maya sighs. “Especially a sub 2:30 PB. I’m not, like, a marathon expert or anything, but that’s some crazy time, Maya.” 

“But when I get to Tokyo in a couple of years, fifth isn’t going to be good enough, no matter how fast fifth is. I’m not even the first loser, I’m the fourth loser.” 

Carina and Andy laugh at Maya’s comment, and when they realize she’s serious, they exchange a look. They really have no concept for how competitive Maya is and how much pressure she puts on herself.

“Yeah, out of like, 20,000,” Carina scoffs, under her breath. Andy gives her a look desperately urging her to let it go, and Carina obliges. Carina didn’t think it was possible to meet someone who was more intense than the group of perfectionistic, sadistic ballet dancers she’d trained with in New York who acted like the entire world was going to end if they did not get an apprenticeship with the New York City Ballet, but somehow, Maya continues to prove her wrong. 

Come summer, Carina, Andy, and Maya take a trip to Key West for Pride. Maya wears a white crop top and white Nike pros—one of the 1,000 pairs she owns as a Nike athlete—with a rainbow tutu over it and tennis shoes. Carina wears a short rainbow tie dye slip dress with white converse. And Andy chooses high waisted light wash jean shorts with rainbow vans and a white bralette with rainbow elastic at the bottom. Their outfits compliment each other a bit and stay on theme, which is all they can ask for.

They hop from parties to parades to other attractions. There’s even a concert. By early evening, they find themselves at a beachside restaurant fueling up on mozzarella sticks and making plans for the evening. They decide to go to one of the bars that is going to have live music. At the bar, Andy has a couple of beers and Carina a couple of shots of vodka, so Maya isn’t entirely surprised when she finds herself sandwiched between the two of them on the dance floor. Carina’s arm is around her waist as Maya grinds her ass into Carina’s front, tutu and all, and her arm is around Andy’s does the same for her. What starts off as playful dancing quickly starts to feel dirty, Maya’s hands wandering Andy’s bare thighs and Carina pushing Maya’s hair to one side, her mouth close to her ear and neck.

Eventually, someone suggests it’s getting late and they should leave. They pack into the backseat of an Uber, Andy, the shortest of the three, in the middle. Maya’s hand rests on Andy’s knee, their thighs pressed together. Carina’s hand is on Andy’s thigh where her shorts meet bare skin. By the time they get back to their Airbnb, the sexual tension between the three of them can be cut with a knife.

They all get some water, dehydrated after the long day. Maya pulls out a container of raspberries she bought when they first got into town and they snack on them for a few minutes. Until wordlessly, Carina comes over to hold Maya from behind, and Andy presses against her front. Andy leans in to kiss Carina, and Maya’s brain short-circuits.

She quickly loses track of who is kissing who. Andy kisses passionately, using lots of tongue. Carina is a bit more sweet and sultry. They alternate who is kissing until Maya moves so she can lean in and join Andy and Carina’s kiss. The three way kisses are slow and messy, tongues and lips everywhere, but it’s also fun. 

Carina breaks the kiss, and leans in to tug Maya’s tutu off before guiding both of them to the Master bedroom. Carina falls onto the bed and drags Andy with her. 

“This is a bad idea,” Maya says, standing next to the bed. Andy and Carina turn to look at her and Andy reaches to help her onto the bed. 

“Let’s not talk about that,” Andy insists. Maya doesn’t look sold. 

“She’s right,” Carina adds. 

“Really?” Andy says with a huff, sitting up cross-legged on the bed. Her shorts are adjusted sideways and her nipples poking through the thin fabric of her bra, her hair messy. 

“You two have been drinking,” Maya points out. Neither of them are particularly drunk, but she’s looking for excuses. 

“Agreed,” Carina bites, also knowing they’re not that drunk. “I’m uh, going to go to bed, in my room.” With that, Carina heads out of the room, leaving Andy and Maya. 

“I’ll sleep on the couch,” Andy insists. They’d gotten a two bedroom place, since the availability was limited during Pride. The plan was for Maya and Andy to share the Master, since it had a King sized bed, and Carina to take the smaller room. 

“Oh, shut up, you’re not taking the couch,” Maya replies. “If you want me to, I will, but I have no problem sleeping in the same bed as you.” 

Andy still feels uncomfortable with it, since she basically just got rejected, and now her stupidly sexy roommate who just rejected her wants to share a bed with her. They both get ready for bed, and Andy waits until Maya falls asleep, and then grabs her extra blanket and brings it to the couch.

Maya feels terrible when she wakes up in the morning and sees Andy sleeping on the couch. She laces up her running shoes for a quick morning jog that she knows she needs—not just her body, but her mind. She runs along a path near the water, taking in the feeling of the early morning heat—a sure sign it will be unbearably hot later in the day. She starts to second guess her decision to put things to a stop the night before. She could’ve had orgasms, yet, here she is, feeling stressed about the two people in her life who usually don’t make her stressed. 

When Maya gets back from her run, Carina is in the kitchen making coffee, and Andy is still asleep. Maya heads off to shower, and starts thinking through what she’s going to say. She hates serious conversations—this is why she doesn’t do relationships. She angrily washes her hair, and scrubs her body probably a bit harder than necessary. Once her angry-showering is over, she puts on a pair of shorts and a cutoff and joins her roommates. Carina is making breakfast and Andy is standing across the island from her, drinking a mug of coffee while they chat about the plans for the day. 

“So,” Maya starts, wanting to rip off the bandaid. “Last night happened.” 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Andy grumbles. 

“I’m sorry, I just, sex changes things,” Maya blurts out. “I like to keep my sex life separate from the relationships I have with people I care about, and I didn’t want to make things messy.” 

“It was sex, Maya, not a fucking marriage proposal,” Andy retorts. Carina bites her lip in concern at how this is playing out. 

“Carina didn’t want to either,” Maya points out. Carina sits in silence. “You backed me up.”

“Maya, sex isn’t something to be talked or guilted into. Of course, I stopped it as soon as you expressed hesitance. That doesn’t mean I didn’t want it,” Carina responds. “I could have seen it as just sex, but you’re right, even just sex isn’t always just sex. I respect that you didn’t want to cross that line with us. You don’t owe us an explanation.” 

“I don’t want you to think I wasn’t into it or, I don’t know. It just didn’t seem like a good idea,” Maya says, curling up on the couch, her food untouched.

“And that’s okay,” Carina adds. 

“Well, Andy is acting like I’m the most unreasonable person on the planet for not wanting to have sex with my roommates, at the same time, while they were drunk,” Maya rambles. 

Andy rolls her eyes. “Nobody was drunk, can we just drop that?” 

Maya huffs. 

“It’s not a personal attack on you,” Carina tells Andy. 

“It kind of feels like it,” Andy admits. “Getting rejected sucks. I feel like things are awkward and I don’t know where I stand or what’s going on.” 

“It’s not about you, Andy,” Maya snaps. “You’re both beautiful and looked sexy as hell last night. If you were two strangers I met at the bar, I absolutely would’ve gotten on top of both of you in the same bed. But I don’t have friends. You two are my only real friends in this world, and I didn’t want to mess that up. But I guess I fucked it up anyway like I do everything else,” Maya says, clearly angry and upset. She storms out of the room and Carina jumps when she hears the door to the Master bedroom slam. 

“You have to fix that,” Carina tells Andy. 

“She doesn’t want to talk to me,” Andy replies. Carina knows she’s right, but she’s annoyed that she has somehow found herself in the middle of this mess. They decide to give Maya a few minutes to cool down. 

“You’re right, that I shouldn’t have pushed. I guess I’m kind of an asshole for making her feel bad for not wanting sex,” Andy admits. 

“She didn’t exactly handle that interaction well, but, I think regardless of her reasons or how she goes about it, once she said she thought it was a bad idea it’s our job as her friends and her...partners in that moment to respect that and not ask any questions,” Carina reminds her. Andy nods. Carina understands where Andy was coming from in the moment—Andy has never been rejected, Maya had seemed really into their makeout session, and the reason Maya gave for wanting to stop was clearly not the real reason. But the bottom line is that none of that matters. 

When Carina slowly pushes the door open, she finds Maya under the covers, frantically wiping her eyes.

“Go away,” Maya insists. Carina sighs, and closes the door behind her, crawling into the bed next to Maya. She is careful not to touch her, just to lay next to her. 

“You should not feel bad about this,” Carina starts. 

“I feel like I stopped it because I wanted to avoid making things messy and now things are messy anyway and the two of you would be better off without me just like everyone else in my life so I don’t know why you are still fucking here when I told you to go away,” Maya says, trailing off into a whisper at the end. Her voice is quiet and not quite angry but detached. 

“Maya,” Carina starts, concerned. “Oh, Maya. I love you, and I love Andy, and I love living with both of you and having friends in both of you. Andy knows she was wrong. We will all get through this mishap and we will be stronger friends for it,” Carina assures her. She leans over and reaches for Maya’s hand. Maya pulls it away and bites down on her lip, hard, and turns her head the other way. “You just can’t ice us out. This isn’t an acceptable way to handle conflict. I love you so I will be honest with you: you are acting pretty childish. So is Andy.” 

They sit in silence. Maya can feel the anger rising in her body but she waits until it passes to open her mouth. 

“When I was a kid one day I forgot to do my daily chore—that night it was washing the dishes. Just forgot, was busy, had a math test the next day, it didn’t cross my mind. My dad didn’t talk to me for the next four days. When I first started running professionally, my coach would ignore me all day if I didn’t weigh in under the number they set for me. This is the only way I know how to handle conflict,” Maya says, the brutal honesty dripping from her lips. 

Carina’s heart breaks. She rolls over and asks Maya if she can hold her. When Maya gives her a small nod, not even thinking, Carina gets in position. And then Maya starts to cry, loudly. 

Andy hears her sobs and rushes into the bedroom. Carina waves her over and Andy hesitantly gets in bed and wraps her arms around Carina’s. After Maya gets her sobs out, they find themselves sitting up in the bed, a weird deja vu of the night before, just with more clothes and less clouded judgment. 

“I’m sorry, Maya,” Andy says. “I have far more respect for you than I showed yesterday and this morning.” 

“I’m sorry that I blew up on both of you,” Maya adds. 

And, in the end, Carina is right, as usual. It does make their friendship stronger. It’s the springboard of Maya starting to open up about the abusive environments she’s lived her whole life in, and starting to realize that she wants something different for her own life. It’s the beginning of Andy taking a serious step to de-center herself in her daily interactions with the people around her. And it’s the first time Carina truly gains people in her life who care about her and want to be there for her, and realize that being there for Carina DaLuca is an active task, not a passive one—because Carina DaLuca will rarely lean on anyone on her own volition. 

Soon after, Andy gets a new salsa partner and an investor for her studio. His name is Robert, and Carina and Maya don’t stop teasing Andy about him from the moment she tells them about him. It’s clear from the way she lights up whenever she mentions him that she’s falling fast. It only takes a couple of months before they start officially dating, and Andy starts being around the apartment less and less. 

At first, the apartment feels empty without Andy. Their schedules are still busy and they’re barely at the apartment at all while both of them are awake. But then, Carina and Maya find themselves falling into domesticity—Maya makes morning smoothies for both of them, Carina makes lunches for both of them to bring to work, Maya makes dinner. They rarely get to eat together, and their evenings off are still only occasional. But when they do happen, Maya and Carina curl up on the couch with a movie and just enjoy being in each other’s presence. 

After months of Andy living at their apartment in theory only, she finally moves out. The day of the official move out, Andy corners Maya and Carina, and tells them what they had both been avoiding thinking about. 

“You two have something that I’ve never had with either of you, and I want you to know that I fully support it if you two wanted to be together. I know you don’t need my permission, but I won’t think it’s weird. I’m happy, and I love both of you so much, and I want to see you happy. There’s something real here. Please, take the leap.” 

And as soon as Andy closes the door with her last bag of things, Carina walks Maya back until her back presses against the door. 

“Kiss me.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! i hope y'all found this one interesting and different, and i also hope y'all are satisfied with the ending. i am a maya x carina girl through and through, and this was the natural path this one took :)


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